A-League football club Sydney FC is forecasting to break even next season, capping a financial turnaround after suffering heavy losses only three years ago.

Chairman
Scott Barlow
told The ­Australian Financial Review the club, which has reached record membership of more than 11,000 fans so far in the current season, has made significant gains in commercial income that has helped cut into the ongoing annual financial deficits. “What we’ve done is really focus on revenue growth in the past three years, it hasn’t been about cutting costs for us. Our cost base has actually increased a bit in that period."

Three seasons ago, Sydney FC had basically hit rock bottom in a ­financial sense. The club lost $7.2 million and derived only about $5 million in ­revenue. For the current 2014-15 ­season, the club is forecasting revenue of between $12.5 million to $13 million income, with a $14 million cost base likely to result in a net loss of between $1 million to $1.5 million.

“When I got here three years ago, we didn’t have a major sponsor and our sponsorship income was about $500,000," Sydney FC chief executive
Tony Pignata
says. “This year it is up to $3 million, so we’ve worked on our relationship with our sponsors."

Sydney FC has established the Sky Blue Club for its sponsors, from where it has plucked the likes of Beechwood Homes to move up to higher levels of sponsorship and appear on the team’s apparel.

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Big increase in crowds, general interest

However, Pignata says it has been “pleasing" that Sydney FC has been able to increase its membership and sponsor base even after Del Piero’s departure before this season.

Sydney FC has averaged crowds of about 27,000 during its first four home game in 2014-15, compared with only about 11,000 three years ago.

Barlow concedes that the current season numbers have been bolstered by clever scheduling by Football ­Federation Australia, which has included a derby against Western ­Sydney Wanderers and a match against rivals Melbourne Victory.

However, he says he would be ex­tremely pleased if the average was between 20,000 and 25,000 by the end of the season. Barlow says there has also been a boost from having a close rival such as the Western Sydney Wanderers, which recently won the Asian Champions League in only its third year in the A-League.

“The introduction of the Wanderers has played a part, no question. The ­Sydney derby is now the biggest game of the year, so for us that is part of the answer. But everything that we do is about representing the city of Sydney. All of our branding and marketing – [the slogan] Sydney is sky blue – is about being confident in our position."

The derby between the Wanderers and Sydney FC earlier this season, won 3-2 by Sydney FC, was the highest-rating regular season match on Fox Sports Australia and also set an attendance record at Sydney FC’s home ground Allianz Stadium.